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Forum:Copper
I thought I'd open this up for anyone wanting to share thoughts on the Copper finale which aired tonight. First of all, I didn't realize until it came on that tonight was the finale; I hadn't been counting all that closely, but I thought they had two episodes to go. I hate how short TV seasons are becoming; it's convenient for those getting caught up on past seasons in a hurry, but if you're following a show as it airs, you can no sooner get into a routine than you're saying goodbye to the show. On a related note, I noticed that they borrowed the Doctor Who tactic of throwing up a grandiose title card with thudding sound effects as the message "Copper will return in summer 2013" is revealed one word at a time. I find I rather like that. It gives a sort of hope and encouragement that I often find lacking in the finales of our domestic shows. As for the episode itself, watching all the ongoing plotlines laid out side by side and pushed toward resolution made me realize for the first time just how much went on in that show. In retrospect, everything was built up to pretty solidly, but there was not much of a sense of things accelerating, except perhaps with the Confederate conspiracy plot. (I did rather come to appreciate the bucket of cold water that was thrown on the happy revisionist myth of near-universal Northern support for the Union.) The show did become more dramatic and easier to follow as the weeks went on; the first two or three episodes had me a bit confused and more than a bit bored, but things tightened up once they got out of the first act of the story. I won't be more specific than that; the "Spoil Away" policy applies only to Turtledove works, and I really don't have all that much to say about many of the main plots beyond that I really don't think there was a weak link in the chain. I do take issue with the very last scene. I found it a very bizarre choice for the image with which the writers want the viewers to be left for almost a year. Is it supposed to hint that when we rejoin our protagonist he'll be in the midst of a rather more serious struggle with his demons than he has been up till now? I like a hurting hero in drama, but there's only so much brokenness you can lay on him before he can no longer win the audience's empathy. But if that's not what they're suggesting, then what the hell are they getting at? One final note: I couldn't swear to it, but I don't believe they once showed Robert Morehouse's legs, though the trauma of the amputation was one of the most central driving forces of his entire character development. Anyone remember seeing it? Turtle Fan (talk) 04:04, October 22, 2012 (UTC) :I didn't catch it, I'm afraid. Some conflict arose, but all these weeks later, I can't remember what. I thought I'd have multiple opportunities to see it throughout the week, but it turned out that I did not. :I have to say, for me, most of the relevant stuff that I cared about was resolved in the episode before. The fate of Corky's wife was revealed, and it was one hell of a body-blow. On the other hand, since this series isn't billing itself as AH, I was pretty confident that the Confederate plot to burn New York down would be thwarted. ::Yes, but seeing exactly how it was thwarted was a real joy. And while the historical record did give some reassurance, it came so close to succeeding that the dramatic tension remained high right up to the last second. Turtle Fan (talk) 05:37, February 11, 2013 (UTC) :When the show returns, I'm sure I can catch that last episode. Ripper Street When I saw a commercial for Ripper Street during, I believe, the DW Christmas special, fond memories of Copper prompted me to give it a try. They also prompted me to give it a second chance after the confusing, boring pilot; I felt the same way about Copper, after all. Now I'm four episodes in and while I won't say it hasn't gotten any better at all, the fact is it's not picking up the way Copper or Boardwalk Empire did. I still don't care about the characters or even know who they are. And the very episodic nature of the show, with completely different, unrelated cases each week, really isn't doing them any favors. In other historical dramas which have gotten off to a slow start, I generally start caring about the characters when I watch them repeatedly trying to crack some certain tough nut which has hooked my interest. I like the show just enough to keep watching, and the fact that I generally don't have much to do on Saturday nights helps; I'm not sure if I'd bother going On Demand or something if I were to miss a week. But four episodes in and four to go, and my interest is still minimal. Not sure if anyone else is watching, but I thought I'd throw that out there. Turtle Fan (talk) 05:37, February 11, 2013 (UTC) June 23 So I saw an ad on last night's rather disappointing Dr Who premier saying that we'll be able to rejoin Corky and the gang for another round of adventures on June 23, a bit earlier than I'd expected. The ad contained what it might or might not be appropriate to consider as hints for where things now stand: Robert and Elizabeth are shagging, which anyone could have seen coming from a mile away; Eva may be expanding her business; Matthew seems worried about something, and I can certainly imagine a long list of somethings; Old Man Waterhouse's career as a reluctant carpet-bagger may get screen time; and it looks like Corky is making a habit of injecting himself with what I assume is morphine. Ellen and Annie did not appear in the trailer. Again, it was all pretty vague and stylized, so these are more general impressions I was left with rather than actual guesses. But the 6/23 date seems set in stone. (I wonder how that will affect the Sixth and Seventh Doctor specials?) Turtle Fan (talk) 16:02, March 31, 2013 (UTC) :I didn't see that trailer. I did see one for Spies of Warsaw, which I'm rather jazzed about. However, I watch like 25 different shows on Wednesdays, so I may be waiting for Netflix. TR (talk) 04:36, April 1, 2013 (UTC) ::I'm free at nine so I'll give it a watch. Seems Tennant is using his Received Pronunciation for it, which will make it easy to think of his character as the Doc undercover. I must admit, though, that I've recently realized that I've just about had my fill of WWII as the setting for historical fiction. (Maybe not for AH, but as we've discussed elsewhere, it would be nice to see some new untapped eras developed instead.)Turtle Fan (talk) 15:11, April 1, 2013 (UTC) :::As I've said elsewhere, Spies of Warsaw was not my favorite Alan Furst work, but as I'd certainly love to see several of his earlier works translated to a screen by way of moving picture, I will do my best to support this. Tennant's a bonus. :::Shifting gears to spies not in World War II, and staying on the topic of Wednesday TV shows, I'm quite fond of The Americans. Have you seen that one yet? If not, I recommend it. The episode set during the attempt on Reagan is probably one of the best hours of TV ever. TR (talk) 19:26, April 1, 2013 (UTC) ::::I remember thinking it looked cool, then forgetting to watch it. I'll make sure I get caught up one of these days. Turtle Fan (talk) 20:30, April 1, 2013 (UTC) ::::I watched the first forty-five minutes of Warsaw before realizing I didn't know what was going on and didn't care either. Tennant was great, but such interest value as the character had for me was 100% dependent on my fondness for the actor. (By the way, I promised myself I wouldn't think of him as the Doctor. This was complicated by my turning it on a few minutes early and catching the final few minutes of "Blink.") I tried, but two hours on a weeknight is a lot of time to invest in the hopes that a show will grow on me later. Turtle Fan (talk) 03:25, April 4, 2013 (UTC) Season 2 I guess we're a little less than halfway through the season (a fact I realize with some alarm, given as we're yet to see anything I'd consider a proper season-long arc) so I thought I'd check in to see how we're all enjoying it. Like Corky, I find that possessing Ellen is nowhere near so satisfying as searching for her was. For very different reasons, of course. Elizabeth was a wonderful character with her poise and imperious sense of command. Seeing her desperate and terrified feels vaguely like character assassination. Her odyssey to rescue Matthew's mother-in-law might have redeemed her as a strong character, but it seems it's going to take place off-screen. I was worried about General Donovan; modern period dramas don't have a great record when it comes to introducing new characters into established casts in the second season and allowing the new character to drive the action. Thus far he's exceeded my expectations; he fits into the cast pretty smoothly for the most part (though it does occasionally feel like they're force-feeding him into scenes where he's not needed, like when he came out of nowhere to tsk-tsk Corky for missing the Morehouse wedding). He doesn't appear to be in line to take over any significant part of the plot, and the supporting role he plays opens new possibilities. I hope other writers are taking notes. I continue to find Annie Riley interesting rather than entertaining. She's so very adult, it's really quite disconcerting (though one has to admire Kiara Glasco for rising to the occasion with such confidence and believability). Seeing her childhood bleed through the past two weeks didn't feel quite right, did it. One thing that's annoying me in general is that when the characters refer to the war--the recruiters who look the other way on the kidnapping of orphans, the terror everyone fears when Matthew proposes going to Virginia, the threat of Confederate-backed counterfeiters destroying the economy--they speak of it as though it's still hanging in the balance. At the time the story is set in, Lee is hanging onto Richmond itself by a thread; Sherman has taken Savannah, reestablished contact with Washington, and confirmed that the Confederate heartland is effectively disemboweled; Thomas has destroyed the only Confederate army still in the field; Farragut's shut down every Confederate port on the Gulf, leaving only Wilmington open anywhere on the Confederate coastline, and that too will soon fall; and four Confederate states have elected pro-Union governors, not counting West Virginia. I don't think it's just hindsight to say that it should be clear to everyone that there's not much to fear from the Rebels anymore. Overall I'm enjoying this season, though I keep waiting for an arc to emerge. Everything seems to resolve itself within two episodes. Maybe now that the counterfeiters have been exposed that will change. I spent all year thinking how much I enjoyed Season 1 of Copper, but now that I'm watching again I'm realizing just how little I remember of that season. For instance, I didn't remember who Francis Maguire was; I had to look him up, and even that didn't jog my memory. I remembered the search for Ellen and that he ultimately found her under upsetting circumstances, the plot against New York which Robert infiltrated and defeated, Robert's father being sent to Atlanta as punishment for playing ball with Kennedy, Corky pulling the knife on Elizabeth, the demise of Elizabeth's first husband, Annie's origin story, and a handful of intriguing bottle episode instances, such as that guy who wound up killing himself by poisoning a cake, giving it to an enemy, and not realizing that it had been regifted all over the city. But mostly I was just left with an emotional impression of this having been an enjoyable show. That at least has not proven incorrect. Turtle Fan (talk) 19:39, July 25, 2013 (UTC) Cancelled! So this diamond in the rough will not be returning for another season. Oh well. I will miss it and remember it fondly, though I suspect I'll be very fuzzy on the details within a short time. I guess it suffered in comparison to Orphan Black, which I have not watched, so either BBCA or their superiors in Old Blighty pulled the plug--because God forbid a 24-hour network have two of its own original shows going at once, when they could show forty-five Star Trek episodes a week instead. :I confess that I did not watch this season at all (and so must accept some blame for its cancellation). I was all set to watch the premiere, and then about 5 minutes before go-time, the idea of watching it just felt...onerous, I guess. Really, with Doctor Who on hiatus, I haven't been watching BBCA at all. :If it makes you feel better, I watched the first episode of Orphan Black, and while I liked what I saw, I didn't watch it either. TR (talk) 18:50, September 24, 2013 (UTC) ::I've been watching Broadchurch, and now that they've finally wrested the rights to Torchwood away from Starz I'm watching Miracle Day for the first time. And I'm keeping up with the Doctors Revisited specials, despite their growing progressively less interesting. What I really want to see, of course, is the reveal of John Hurt's identity, and all the rest of it is thin gruel by comparison. Turtle Fan (talk) 22:20, September 24, 2013 (UTC) Quite some time ago--like when Broadchurch first started airing--I saw a commercial that said "Don't miss the final episodes of Copper!" which implied the finale was imminent. So for well over a month I turned it on each week wondering "Is this the last episode of the year?" They did an interesting thing in giving us two finales, one which wrapped up Season 2's plot (not sure how I feel about it overall, though I'll give them credit for subverting my expectations that Donovan was the big bad for a while, and his final confrontation with Corky was one of the best I've seen on TV drama in recent years) and one as a kind of an epilogue to the show in general. The latter was . . . I'm going to have to digest it a bit, but while it had some redeeming points, overall it struck me as downright amateurish. Obviously I knew from the start that they weren't going to find Booth, since none of our three heroes was Boston Corbett, so I was curious about why the writers chose that direction. Giving them a chance to explore their origin story in depth, whereas it had previously only been hinted at, sort of works, and I guess is the sort of thing you'd want to do when your show's been cut short and you have just one last chance to get it all out there. I noticed a number of inaccuracies: Morehouse carrying a musket--possible he would have acquired one in the heat of battle, but not standard issue, so he wouldn't've had the accessories for it and thus would not have seen much use. Freeman in uniform and carrying a musket as well as the necessary accoutrements to use it when he was 1) a medic and 2) certainly a civilian, since there were no integrated regiments at this time. When our heroes were trying to remember the details of the action where Morehouse lost his leg, they appeared to be in either the Wilderness (which is consistent with Corky's comment to the priest who presided over Ellen's funeral) or Spotsylvania Court House, based on the comments they'd made about the things they'd just passed. But back in Season 1 didn't someone say that Morehouse was wounded at Gettsburg? Chancellorsville is also an outside possibility from the geographic hints of that scene. But then the date on the girl's tombstone was 4/10/1864, which doesn't fit any of those actions. Is it unreasonable to ask that, if they're already taking the trouble to drop historical hints, they not make those hints contradictory? Oh, and based on my best guess of where they were when all that happened, Port Royal, the town where Booth was killed, would have been roughly 25 or 30 miles southeast of the rest of their adventures. On another note, the opening scene where they're all alone with Lincoln's body was dramatic but quite inappropriate; it never would have happened like that. (I noticed that, like Daniel Day Lewis's Lincoln, he did not have a full beard. Had Lincoln changed his facial hair in the final year?) One wishes that Elizabeth's final appearance in the series were not a non-speaking walk-on part. In fact she really hadn't done anything of consequence since Norbert told her to stop getting high as a kite every second that there is. (Norbert on the other hand got a relatively extensive epilogue.) Eva didn't appear at all in this one, was barely in last week's, and hadn't been relevant in her own right (as opposed to as a motivating factor for other characters) in weeks. For a show which had had such a rich ensemble cast for most of its run, casting all but the Big Three aside like that really was an unfortunate choice. And as for the final scene in the Paradise--well, I shouldn't have expected Corky would ever find a truly happy ending, but it was damned cruel of them to leave us hanging like that when they knew they'd never resolve it. Turtle Fan (talk) 05:55, September 23, 2013 (UTC) Copper